The NDP and the Cadman bribe: "Tommy Douglas must be spinning in his grave like a lathe"
Not my words, but those of Don MacNeil:
Tommy Douglas must be spinning in his grave like a lathe.Yes, yes, we know this. Anything else about the NDP?
The former leader of the New Democratic leader, chosen as the Greatest Canadian of all-time, would be shocked to find out what his party under Jack Layton has devolved into.
This week the New Democratic Party of Canada has decided it will not support an Ethics Committee investigation into the Chuck Cadman Affair.
Pat Martin, an NDP representative on the House of Commons Ethics Committee, says the Cadman affair is not “a good fit for the ethics committee” and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police should investigate.I agree, it's weird for the NDP to fully trust the RCMP. By the way, on other corruption files the NDP had no problem handing it over to an ethics commission first. Double standards for sure.
Pat Martin and the NDP may be the last people who still have faith in the Mounties. The Liberals have also asked the RCMP to look into the matter as well, but have also proposed it go to the Ethics Committee. The Bloc Québecois support the Liberals but Jack Layton and the Conservatives oppose public committee hearings into allegations of bribery leveled against the prime minister.
The Cons motives are obvious. The same could be said about the Liberals and Bloc but the puzzling thing to some is why the Dippers aren’t willing to get to go along.Indeed, we can't trust the NDP on the Cadman file. Shame on the NDP!
The conventional wisdom has the NDP in league with the Harper Gang in trying to silence the Chuck Cadman Affair, because they are afraid the only beneficiary, politically, of the whole scandal will be the Liberal Party and the New Democrats would rather be complicit in a cover-up than risk being hurt politically.
Pretty strong language, I agree, but then again it’s a pretty strong topic. This has the makings of the greatest Canadian political scandal since the Pacific Scandal that brought the end to the first Conservative government of John A. Macdonald.Exactly! Dirty hands are appearing everywhere I look.
So the question (again) is why is Jack Layton running interference for Stephen Harper? If the answer turns out to be for purely personal partisan gain than Layton and Martin have hands as dirty as they allege the Harper Gang’s are.
Also the NDP are coming off a bribery scandal their own.Really?
One where they had to apologize in the House of Commons and pay a cash settlement to a Liberal candidate in the last election that they accuse of trying to bribe one of his rivals. The story was a complete fabrication by a NDP candidate and the party paid a heavy price, both financially, and what would be more important to Tommy Douglas, to their reputation as being the conscious of the commons.Read the whole story: It's not too late to build a better world
It might be something they want to avoid as the Cadman Affair may do collateral damage to Jack Layton’s political objectives.
7 comments:
First of all .... who the hell is Don MacNeil???
Second ... I think if Tommy were alive, there would be a couple of other more meaningful things that would have him ticked off than the fact that the NDP don't want to let the Liberals grandstand in a parliamentary Committee.
If the RCMP decides not to investigate the Cadman Affair, by all means, a parliamentary committee should investigate what happened.
Rushing to committee potentially gives the RCMP an 'out' to not investigate - claiming that they are not going to tread on 'parliament's' toes.
I am also angry over what the Conservatives did vis a vis Cadman ... but I am not unhappy with the way the NDP have been dealing with this matter .. taking it one step at a time ... not running all over the place with simultaneous police investigations, parliamentary committee enquiries, media speculation ... etc.
What a bunch of partisan BS, leftdog.
The NDP has been sitting on its hands. No, worse than that, they "blocked" a motion to support an Ethics Committee investigation into the Chuck Cadman affair.
Their "one step at a time" fable doesn't make sense if you look at their track record of how they dealt with allegations of corruption before.
Pat Martin's "not a good fit" is BS, since the committee will deal with anything the House of Commons will put forward, as their mandate requires to do so.
This matter is serious enough to have investigated by both, Ethics committee and RCMP, just like other times corruption was alleged.
The NDP is playing politics with a serious crime, and they're obstructing to have this resolved by a committee. And why? Because they don't think they'll gain the same advantage as the Libs do. Pathetic.
Canada shouldn't be governed be any longer by someone who has been caught bribing AND lying about it.
It's time for core principles, NDP!
(that's if you have any left...)!
leftdog nails most of this and erik, you spell it out in your comment. The biggest reason this should go to the RCMP is that the allegations, if true, are clearly criminal, for an ethics committee there is little here, it was clearly unethical and even the cons admit this. The ethics committee will only prevent the RCMP from doing their job if anything.
If the NDP were smart and keep getting incorrectly hammered on this (funny how the NDP is the only one wanting real consequences and are getting shit on for being weak) they should allow the committee to investigate, but include all floor crossings of the past, say 5 years, and see if the liberals are still on board.
for an ethics committee there is little here, it was clearly unethical
Can we have that in writing, please? As far as the NDP is concerned, that's a NO.
And they don't make any effort ti make sure that at no point in time criminals should be governing Canada.
The NDP is also inconsistent. I don't remember the NDP referring the sponsorship scandal to the RCMP when the scandal broke. That scandal was also full of illegal practises. And then there's this:
"There is a lingering perception that the RCMP tread gently when investigating wrongdoing of elected officials, especially prime ministers."
Those famous words are from?
You couldn't have guessed it, could you, because that wouldn't look so great on the NDP record. Well, it's from the one and only NDP MP Pat Martin; go figure (h/t to Far and Wide). Doesn't this smell like the NDP doesn't want the Conservatives to get caught? It does to me...
And if the NDP is so serious about "wanting real consequences" in the Cadman affair, then why are they putting all their political focus on the so-called NAFTA-gate? Why ARE they not hammering away at the Conservatives where it matters most?
At the national level, NAFTA-gate is nothing compared to the Cadman Bribery. Why not? Because the NAFTA affair is about the Conservative Party and their behaviour towards a foreign nation. Who give's a fuck?
The Cadman bribery is about criminal act by our own Prime Minister, indeed aka Stephen Harper.
Where's the outrage I had expected from the NDP? I liked Jack!, but not anymore. I'm truly disappointed.
First, I should say to you Eric that I should not have come onto your blog blasting away as hard as I did. We have had a good blogging relationship for a long time ... I missed you during your long absence awhile back.
Second, the NDP is NOT interested in taking this matter to a committee because that continues a recognition that the Harper government should continue in power.
The NDP have voted against the Harper government on every vote (especially 'confidence' votes) because we believe that it is time to take the Harper record to the people in an election. The Bloc also has attempted to defeat Harper in the House of Commons.
The Liberals, sent 7 MP's into the House to support their own budget amendment! The Liberals sent 11 MP's into the House to vote against Harper's Budget ... and because the Liberals continue to prop up Harper, they also want the Cadman Affair to go to a 'committee'. The NDP WANTS AN ELECTION! Your desire to have this matter go to committee seems to recognize that Harper should remain in power and business of this government will continue!
The Cadman matter has been given to the RCMP. Like you, I don't have a huge amount of faith in the RCMP but they are all we have.
With NaftaGate, Cadman Affair, the Baird/O'Brien scandal all underway, the Canadian people need to throw Harper out.
I know that you are angry at the NDP for not wanting this to go to the 'Ethics' Committee or the 'Justice' Committee!
The NDP wants an election NOW and we will bring ALL of these matters to the people.
I am afraid that you are letting the Liberals off the hook by agreeing with them that the Cadman matter should be dealt with in a committee. Why not throw Harper out of office first thing Monday morning, and we will let the people decide?
I wanted to send you this by email, but you don't have it listed.
I respect my blogging friendship with you and wish that we were not in such an adversarial position, when the real enemy is Harper (and the bloody Liberals who give him his 'majority' in the House of Commons).
LD
Hi leftdog, I need to apologize about attacking you so hard in my comment section. I've obviously been frustrated over the Stephen Harper bribery and since I felt nobody seems to take it serious when it matters most, I took it out on you. Sorry.
I still feel the NDP is not taking the Harper bribery case serious and I found another event to back it up.
On Friday's Primetime Politics NDP MP Peter Julian was asked about the NAFTA leak, and here's what he had to say:
The buzz that's coming out today, the latest revelation, that David Emerson, the international trade minister was speaking to [congressman]Mike Michaud, who is the chair of the Friends of Canada in [bi-partisan] caucus of Congress, actually said he was willing to renegotiate NAFTA.
So you've got the Conservatives' double-speak, saying one thing in private meetings and another thing publicly at the same time they've had what I believe to be a deliberate disinformation campaign to try to undermine Democratic contenders. This is unprecedented.
So even more than the Cadman scandal, this is by far the biggest scandal that has faced the Harper government. And it was deliberately provoked by the Conservative government while in government.
Do you see what I mean? The NAFTA-leak is perhaps important (or perhaps not) on an international level, nationally it is minor; although some rule(s) might have been broken, there is no criminal case here (or is there?), and maybe even more important, Stephen Harper is not directly involved.
I had expected outrage from the NDP over the Harper bribery, but how can I expect that when the bribery is seen as only minor compared to the so-called NAFTA-gate by the NDP?
I don't trust the Liberals on this either, leftdog, although it might come off that way. What I do appreciate is that they kept hammering on it this week. I'm sure they've got other (than moral) motives to do so, but I consider that less important.
So once again, sorry, leftdog. Please except my apologies. I will send you a private email some time.
Cheers.
Last note is for Sid, if you have evidence (a tape would be a start) that bribery was involved in one of the floor crossings, you should put that forward to the RCMP :)
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